Noopur Agarwal is a San Francisco-based visual communicator and design educator. After studying at Ohio State University and Temple University and working at the Wexner Center for the Arts and the Asia Society and Museum, she realized how much she loved teaching and supporting the work of other artists. She has committed her career to doing exactly that.
Currently a professor at the University of San Francisco, Noopur finds that in all the negative of climate change, it’s just as important to amplify the positive. “When the reality seems so bleak, I have learned from teaching that young people need hope and sometimes a little progress fuels more progress. Perhaps hope will accelerate more positive action in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.”
In addition to teaching, she’s worked on a range of impactful projects, notably as the Exhibitions Graphics Lead for Coal + Ice, designing for installations that have appeared around the globe. With these experiences, Noopur wants to look beyond just using recycled paper to be a sustainable designer. She asks, “What are the habits we as designers need to confront so that our consumption is more sustainable?”
Read more to learn about Noopur’s journey to teaching, the influences of her Indian-American heritage, and her love for promoting artists’ social impact work through design.
Can you tell us a bit about your career path and how you ended up working on such a wide range of work, including social justice and climate change-related projects?
I studied visual communication design as an undergrad at Ohio State University. In my final year I interned at the Wexner Center for the Arts—the University’s contemporary arts lab and gallery. It was particularly formative for me as I was learning directly from the in-house graphic design team how to support the work of artists and promote public programming in the arts by designing across various media (exhibitions, publications, advertisements, websites, etc.) The most exciting part was understanding how museums and cultural centers are inherently tied to education. My internship at the Wexner Center led to my first professional design job at the Asia Society and Museum in New York City. There, I continued to work to support the arts focusing broadly on Asia and more specifically on the mission of the organization, which is to bring a wider understanding of Asia to the West through arts, education, policy and business. During that time I learned so much about Asia and the ongoing social issues facing communities across the diverse continent, especially climate change. All the while, I was confronting my own assimilation as a second-generation Indian American. Eventually, I decided to pursue a graduate degree in design so that I could have the time and space for personal work exploring themes of identity and privilege. While at grad school, in addition to my personal work, I had the opportunity to TA in a few classes and really enjoyed being in the classroom in a teaching capacity. After several years working professionally in the industry (in publishing and then in technology), I came back full circle to education, teaching undergraduate design courses at the University of San Francisco. I’ve developed a love for teaching, and have decided I will stay focused on design education and supporting cultural institutions promote their work.
What does sustainability in design mean to you?
I am continuously learning about the meaning of sustainability in design; the more I learn, the more questions I have. I think the first important question about sustainability is; what is it that is being sustained? My friend and colleague Rachel Beth Egenhoefer and her book The Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Design has been an important resource for me. Her work reminds me that now more than ever we as a creative community need to go further than designing more recyclable and compostable stuff. We should think about what we might do that moves the needle further. How can we as designers find time and space for exploring what Rachel Beth calls “regeneration”? And on the individual level, I think about what habits I might need to change—and specifically what digital habits I need to change—so that both my mental and physical consumption is more sustainable.
“How can we as designers find time and space for exploring what Rachel Beth calls “regeneration”? And on the individual level, I think about what habits I might need to change—and specifically what digital habits I need to change—so that both my mental and physical consumption is more sustainable.”
Is there a favorite project in the realm of sustainability or climate change that you’ve worked on, and, if so, why is it important to you?
For more than a decade I have been lucky to be involved with the production of an immersive documentary photography exhibition that visualizes the climate crisis called Coal + Ice. I have served as the lead graphic designer for the initiative in all of its different installations (Beijing, Yixian, Shanghai, Paris, San Francisco, Washington DC). With each new presentation, the project team challenge themselves to find new ways to reach audiences with powerful and urgent images of the effects of climate change both on the landscape and the peoples that inhabit it. This project is a large collaborative effort that continues to grow and evolve. I am proud that with this project, I can amplify the work of artists and learn from experts working directly on issues of climate justice.
We love your project ‘The Courageous Way Forward’ which asked women and non-binary designers to contribute their talents in the form of posters. Could you talk us through the creative approach and outcome of this project?
I was honored to be asked by designers and organizers Michele Cooper and Kelly Holohan to contribute to WetheWomenDesign.com—a visual initiative where women and non-binary designers sought to raise awareness about women’s rights in the United States. I was thinking a lot about the ways that women’s issues affect every issue—disability justice, immigrant justice, judicial reform, gender based violence, voting rights, LGBTQ equity, racial justice, health care, climate justice, reproductive freedom, economic security… I was overwhelmed trying to pick just one topic to focus on and frankly was getting a bit enraged thinking about all of the injustices women are still fighting in the U.S and globally. After many failed attempts at sketching representational imagery for such huge topics, the word “RAGE” in the word “COURAGEOUS” stood out to me. I decided to solve the poster typographically and focus on that word play. The poster asks women to harness their inner rage and turn it into the courage needed to propel us to a feminist future for all.
Do you carry anything from your experience in social justice and climate change-related work to your teaching as a professor?
Absolutely. The University of San Francisco (where I teach) has a social justice mission so our entire curriculum is intrinsically approached through this lens. The university’s mission centers on the following core values: learning as a humanizing activity rather than a competitive exercise; the full development of each person; and a culture of service that promotes the dignity of every person. These values drive my teaching and related activities in and out of the classroom.
“The University of San Francisco (where I teach) has a social justice mission so our entire curriculum is intrinsically approached through this lens.”
In order to steer students towards these greater goals, my course design encourages self-exploration. I believe there are important benefits to personal narratives, and students who are willing and wanting to share their own lived experiences and interests bring more of their whole selves to the classroom and to their work.
For example, I co-taught a course called “Hacking a Sustainable Campus” that asked non-design students to track their personal habits related to energy, water, waste, and transportation. With their unique datasets, the students created handmade visualizations of their findings. At the end of the semester, after reflecting on their consumption habits, they proposed creative solutions for making the university more sustainable.
Sustainability is intrinsically tethered to technology. In my classes I try to teach students to develop an enthusiastic but critical relationship with digital tools and services. I ask students about their personal relationship with the technology they use. We interrogate the obscured physicality of the internet and the impact of our devices on the environment.
Many of my students will go on to work in (or adjacent to) the fast-paced tech sector, where developing the skill of thoughtful reflection on digital products is urgently needed in order to secure a more equitable future for all.
“Sustainability is intrinsically tethered to technology. In my classes I try to teach students to develop an enthusiastic but critical relationship with digital tools and services. I ask students about their personal relationship with the technology they use. We interrogate the obscured physicality of the internet and the impact of our devices on the environment.”
If you could share one way that designers can work more sustainably, what would it be?
Recently I have been thinking about the sorts of messaging that I and other designers help create and disseminate that can amplify the progress that has been made towards combating climate change when the reality seems so bleak. I have learned from teaching that young people need hope and sometimes a little progress fuels more progress. Perhaps hope will help to accelerate more positive action in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
“I have learned from teaching that young people need hope and sometimes a little progress fuels more progress. Perhaps hope will help to accelerate more positive action in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.”
You mention on your website that your Indian-American heritage influences your practice. We’d love to hear more about how this impacts your work.
I think it’s important for individuals to bring their own context into their work. In grad school, for the first time, I was encouraged to do so. As a child of immigrants, my family and I would often travel back to India to visit family. Being surrounded by folks I could see myself in—but that lived very differently from me—made me aware of privilege at a young age. For example, in a project called The Bottom Line, I created an awareness campaign for global sanitation that stemmed from realizing as a child that I took clean, safe, and private bathrooms for granted.
Do you have any women role models or mentors who have shaped your career?
Yes. My big sisters—Neha Agarwal and her partner Beth Shirrell. They introduced me to design. They encouraged me to pursue design as a vocation. They were integral in my decision to apply to grad school, and showed by example how rewarding it can be to practice (and to teach) design. As designers they are continuously learning and upgrading their skill set. And as mentors, their passion for creativity is a constant source of inspiration. And, as ever, as the little sister, I still want to be just like them.